Margarethe von Trotta's Rosenstrasse sits alongside
Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall as recent works by German
filmmakers prepared to tackle the darkest chapter of their
country's recent history.

Both films mark a greater willingness by Germans to explore such
issues in cinema. They also represent the works of two generations
of filmmakers.

Whereas Hirschbiegel, in his third feature, turns his camera on
the events in Hitler's bunker in the final days of World War II,
veteran filmmaker von Trotta tells what she describes as "a little
story".

Rosenstrasse focuses on the efforts of non-Jewish women
in 1943 who, through determined street protests, secured the
release of their Jewish husbands who had been incarcerated in a
Berlin prison on a street from which the film takes its title. The
women's lonely vigil is an image that resonates through the
film.

Von Trotta is at pains to avoid being pigeonholed as a feminist
filmmaker who focuses on historical subject matter and female
protagonists. However, Rosenstrasse can be seen as part of
an extensive body of work that, like her biopic Rosa
Luxemburg (1986), touches upon the human (and often female)
face of events that take place during crucial times in 20th-century
German history.

Von Trotta began her career as an actress in films by such
directors as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlondorff (to
whom she was once married) before turning her hand to
directing.

Speaking by phone from her home in Paris, von Trotta recounts
that getting her 11th feature film made was no easy task.

"I wouldn't say that it was a taboo, but, for a long time,
(Germany's Nazi past) was something that we Germans did not want to
touch," she says.

For some years, her efforts to fund the film were hampered by
German producers and film funding boards' preference for more
light-hearted subject matter.

Indeed, during the '90s, Germany produced what von Trotta
describes as "a wave of comedies", many of which didn't make it
past the Austrian border.

Tellingly, one film that did actually achieve international
success towards the end of the decade was the drama Comedian
Harmonists, about a comical music group's struggle against
Nazi anti-semitism.

In 2001, von Trotta raised her film "back from the grave" - it
had been ready to be shot in '96 - reworked her script and raised a
budget. When asked how her approach to making Rosenstrasse
differs from other directors who have famously tackled elements of
the Third Reich or the Holocaust, von Trotta suggests her approach
was "more - let's say, intimate".

A scene from Rosenstrasse.

"As one of the characters in the film states, 'It's a very small
ray of light in the midst of darkness'," she says.

"I was happy to have this very small story to tell because I
don't feel capable of telling the whole story of the
Holocaust."

She points out that Schindler's List was directed by a
Jewish director (Steven Spielberg) as was The Pianist
(Roman Polanski).

"They have a very different position to my own: I must be more
modest," she says.

Rosenstrasse was criticised by prominent German
historian Wolfgang Benz for "distorting history".

Like Hirschbiegel's Downfall, Rosenstrasse is
based on oral history. However, von Trotta has taken certain
liberties with facts and embellished her story with a narrative of
her own creation, which even includes the intervention of
Goebbels.

At the time of its release, von Trotta claimed that the "true
incidents" as proclaimed in the opening titles relate only to the
women "who stood there and showed courage". For her, historical
accuracy is not the main issue, but rather the light shed on these
women's heroic actions.

She reminisces about being a member of what was seen by many in
the '70s as the world's most vibrant film community, which boasted
filmmaking stars such as Wim Wenders.

"Well, we were all living in Munich and we saw each other a lot
and saw each other as friends. But then everyone went elsewhere.
Wenders went to America. (Werner) Herzog left Germany, too. Volker
(Schlondorff) tried to make films in America, too, and I went to
Italy.

'Today, we don't see each other so often. I still stay in touch
with Volker for private reasons more than filmmaker's reasons and I
sometimes see Wim, but we don't feel like a group anymore."

She cites Fassbinder's death from a drug overdose in 1982 as "a
turning point for us all".

Von Trotta feels very much a European filmmaker. Unlike some of
her counterparts, she has never had any desire to test the waters
in Hollywood. However, she speaks enthusiastically of her latest
project, starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, best known for roles in
Night on Earth, Shine and Fassbinder's
Lola.

"Even though I do have an audience in America, I feel so
European that I don't think that I'd have a chance there," she
says.

"But, speaking about our past as filmmakers in Germany, I am now
doing a script written by Peter Marthesheimer (who died in 2004)
who wrote several scripts for Fassbinder - he wrote The
Marriage of Maria Braun ('79), Veronika Voss ('82)
and Lola ('81).